The Festival del Primo Romanzo (First Novel Festival) came to Cuneo in 1999, thanks to the interest of several readers that had started to read Italian debut novels with the Book Salon in Turin. When the venture in Turin died down in 1998, readers from Cuneo proposed the continuation to the Municipality of Cuneo, that made it its own and entrusted it to the Public Library of Cuneo. Right from the start a link with the Festival du Premier Roman de Chambéry-Savoie was established, thanks to the collaboration of the Alliance Française of Cuneo and the Dante Alighieri of ChambéryThe Festival del Primo Romanzo changed its name to Premio Città di Cuneo per il Primo Romanzo Romanzo (The City of Cuneo prize for the First Novel) in 2001, keeping its organization and its goals unaltered.The collaboration with the Festival du premier roman de Chambéry-Savoie strengthened, up until the climax in 2008 of the conception of the Alcotra Giovani e Primo romanzo project that was co-funded by the European Union.